The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Papers
The second is the Botswana Technology Centre (BOTEC) established in 1979. Its mandate is to
promote Science and Technology through
• R & D
• technology transfer,
• industrial support,
• policy development, and
• specialized informational services and systems on technology solutions for industry, business,
education.
BOTEC manufactures hi-technology products such as the mini hearing aid, the photovoltaic
charge controller and the remote sensing equipment for weather stations. Consistent with its mandate
of policy development, it was also instrumental in drafting the Science and Technology Policy
for Botswana.
In terms of collaboration, BOTEC is the national focal point for a number of international S&T
bodies including the Commonwealth, WAITRO, and the World Energy Council.
The National Food Technology Research Centre (NFTRC) is the third R&D institute in Botswana.
It developed from being the Botswana Food Laboratory in 1984 to become a NFTRC in 1999. Its
role is limited to producing food technology, with the following objectives:
• To initiate, conduct, and direct scientific and technological research and development work
relating to food and nutrition to enhance national food security
• To generate and disseminate food and nutritional data and information for use by farmers and
researchers and professionals in nutrition, agriculture, public health, food safety, control and
regulation, food processors, policy makers and other stakeholders.
• To provide information and technical expertise needed to facilitate the development and sustainability
of food based SMME’s and related enterprises by contributing to economic diversification,
import substitution and job creation.
Research Management, A Sine Qua Non For National Development
Innovation can be both very expensive and risky. It is estimated that for every 100 ideas that look
commercializable, only around 17 will be commercially exploitable, and that only 1 out of every
10,000 chemical entities initially screened as drug candidates, will lead to a final product.(Walwyn
2004:1). Thus, innovation is costly. Hence risk management becomes critical in innovation and
technology development. Risk management is made possible by commercialization strategies that
apply the right techniques which are used to minimize economic loss in the process of new product
development. The technologically developed countries of the West have the techniques that
enable them assess not only the chances of commercial success of innovation ideas, but also they
have the techniques such as the risk adjusted net present value (rNPV) which is used to manage
research risk, and R&D gain which is used to determine the required level of R&D expenditure.
Such competence enables them to know at what stage of the commercialization process technology
development must be licensed out to other companies, sold or whether it is optimal to develop
it up to the final product stage, which is the market.
168 2005 Symposium Proceedings Book